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Stripe might be considered "disruptive" in the developer community, but I fail to see how they are beyond that. They built a very easy to use tool on top of an

by jarcoal 14y ago

Stripe might be considered "disruptive" in the developer community, but I fail to see how they are beyond that. They built a very easy to use tool on top of an outdated (though still commonly used) payment technology.

garraeth 14y ago
"They built a very easy to use tool on top of an outdated (though still commonly used) payment technology." Could you please expand on this? And, if possible, describe newer/better technologies? Thanks!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- jarcoal 14y ago
  Maybe it's just me, but credit cards seem pretty old fashion. I mean, could you imagine someone inventing a payment technology today that required you to give away your secret password to each and every person who needed to bill you? It's no wonder there is so much money lost to fraud. I think companies like Dwolla are the real future, even if Dwolla itself fails. The tokens they issue for payments are only good for a certain amount to a certain recipient. Recipient gets hacked? Sign in to Dwolla and expire that token, simple as that. Also CC fees are absolutely astronomical, we've just gotten used to paying them. We really need a future where money transfer is not controlled by a few private interests that are capturing 3% of everything.
dpeck 14y ago
I think you underestimate the disruptive potential that Stripe gives. Dealing with payments is one of the biggest pain points that a lot of people have when putting together a new web venture. They've uncomplicated the payment part of the system enough that it essentially removes that pain completely allowing many more developers to take the plunge into a side project that they can potentially make a little cash with. Having revenue coming in keeps those developers going and we will see some great things come out of it. That has huge potential! Unless an easier competitor comes along I do and will continue to use Stripe for anything that I'm not using for a primary source of income.
- jbigelow76 14y ago
  "I think you underestimate the disruptive potential that Stripe gives. Dealing with payments is one of the biggest pain points that a lot of people have when putting together a new web venture." No offense but I think this statement shows exactly what makes Stripe so non-disruptive. Stripe has targeted a niche, not a vertical. Payment processing exists beyond the needs of new web ventures. The majority of businesses (brick and mortars) can't even make use of stripe without a VAR or OEM acting as a middle man, and at that point where is the value that stripe brings to the table? The savings will be eaten up by the middle man. Stripe may be great for a small development shop cranking out mobile and web apps (I'm their target market, I'm considering using it for my SaaS myself) but once a business starts to scale saving a quarter or half percentage point on processing fees by using something like auth.net makes sense when weighed against the usability of stripe from a developer perspective.
  - runako 14y ago
    >> Stripe has targeted a niche, not a vertical. Isn't that the textbook (Christensen) method to successfully attack larger entrenched interests?
    - abiekatz 14y ago
      The textbook method to disrupt a market is through disruptive innovation. This is serving the very low end of a market with a solution that is just good enough and then moving up market. Sustaining innovation is when a company keeps improving a product and raising the prices. Stripe is more of a sustaining innovation than a disruptive one. Typically incumbents are the ones to improve their products while raising the price, but it is also possible for a new entrant to do the same. Providing a much better user experience could potentially lead to Stripe dominating the payments market but it is really just a less hassle version of what is in place today. Payments are a huge hassle to deal with as a merchant/developer so this is still an innovation but just not a disruptive one. Dwolla is a better example of disruptive innovation in that they are circumventing the whole credit card system which could potentially save merchants and indirectly, consumers, large amounts of money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
brandnewlow 14y ago
Sounds a lot like what people were writing on HN about Dropbox back in 2006. Stripe has already clearly proven itself as a company operating on a plane far higher than most "startups". My co-founder and I take a look at their team page when we're looking at new hires just to remind ourselves of how high our standards need to be. The size of their recent raise shows investors heard things that got them pretty excited, too. I'll not doubt them.

by jarcoal 14y ago

garraeth 14y ago

"They built a very easy to use tool on top of an outdated (though still commonly used) payment technology." Could you please expand on this? And, if possible, describe newer/better technologies? Thanks!

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
jarcoal 14y ago
Maybe it's just me, but credit cards seem pretty old fashion. I mean, could you imagine someone inventing a payment technology today that required you to give away your secret password to each and every person who needed to bill you? It's no wonder there is so much money lost to fraud. I think companies like Dwolla are the real future, even if Dwolla itself fails. The tokens they issue for payments are only good for a certain amount to a certain recipient. Recipient gets hacked? Sign in to Dwolla and expire that token, simple as that. Also CC fees are absolutely astronomical, we've just gotten used to paying them. We really need a future where money transfer is not controlled by a few private interests that are capturing 3% of everything.

dpeck 14y ago

I think you underestimate the disruptive potential that Stripe gives. Dealing with payments is one of the biggest pain points that a lot of people have when putting together a new web venture. They've uncomplicated the payment part of the system enough that it essentially removes that pain completely allowing many more developers to take the plunge into a side project that they can potentially make a little cash with. Having revenue coming in keeps those developers going and we will see some great things come out of it. That has huge potential! Unless an easier competitor comes along I do and will continue to use Stripe for anything that I'm not using for a primary source of income.

jbigelow76 14y ago
"I think you underestimate the disruptive potential that Stripe gives. Dealing with payments is one of the biggest pain points that a lot of people have when putting together a new web venture." No offense but I think this statement shows exactly what makes Stripe so non-disruptive. Stripe has targeted a niche, not a vertical. Payment processing exists beyond the needs of new web ventures. The majority of businesses (brick and mortars) can't even make use of stripe without a VAR or OEM acting as a middle man, and at that point where is the value that stripe brings to the table? The savings will be eaten up by the middle man. Stripe may be great for a small development shop cranking out mobile and web apps (I'm their target market, I'm considering using it for my SaaS myself) but once a business starts to scale saving a quarter or half percentage point on processing fees by using something like auth.net makes sense when weighed against the usability of stripe from a developer perspective.
- runako 14y ago
  >> Stripe has targeted a niche, not a vertical. Isn't that the textbook (Christensen) method to successfully attack larger entrenched interests?
  - abiekatz 14y ago
    The textbook method to disrupt a market is through disruptive innovation. This is serving the very low end of a market with a solution that is just good enough and then moving up market. Sustaining innovation is when a company keeps improving a product and raising the prices. Stripe is more of a sustaining innovation than a disruptive one. Typically incumbents are the ones to improve their products while raising the price, but it is also possible for a new entrant to do the same. Providing a much better user experience could potentially lead to Stripe dominating the payments market but it is really just a less hassle version of what is in place today. Payments are a huge hassle to deal with as a merchant/developer so this is still an innovation but just not a disruptive one. Dwolla is a better example of disruptive innovation in that they are circumventing the whole credit card system which could potentially save merchants and indirectly, consumers, large amounts of money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

brandnewlow 14y ago

Sounds a lot like what people were writing on HN about Dropbox back in 2006. Stripe has already clearly proven itself as a company operating on a plane far higher than most "startups". My co-founder and I take a look at their team page when we're looking at new hires just to remind ourselves of how high our standards need to be. The size of their recent raise shows investors heard things that got them pretty excited, too. I'll not doubt them.